Featured Retailer: Hive Modern

One of our favorite retailers of modern furniture, accessories and lighting is the Portland-based Hive Modern, however, unlike their name might suggest, they do everything but follow the crowd. Founded in 2002, Hive has flourished into a powerhouse in the industry both at its beautiful location in Portland's upscale Pearl District...

One of our favorite retailers of modern furniture, accessories and lighting is the Portland-based Hive Modern, however, unlike their name might suggest, they do everything but follow the crowd. Founded in 2002, Hive has flourished into a powerhouse in the industry both at its beautiful location in Portland’s upscale Pearl District as well as it strong online presence at hivemodern.com.

You can just tell that the people behind the Hive name really love modern design by their enthusiasm and understanding of what people really want in their home furnishings…good design. The selection of products is just brimming with cool stuff. They have an uncanny ability to blend those rare and unusual pieces with those iconic old modern furniture and lighting designs we all love.

Here is a great example of something that is rare and unusual, Hive Modern carries vintage World War II era molded plywood leg splints designed by Charles Eames in 1942 for the United States Navy. Manufactured by the Evans Products Company, they were inexpensive and lightweight and highly functional yet they are just as the sculptural and dare I say, even as beautiful as the bent plywood furniture designed by Eames. These Eames Leg Splints are a fine example of his molded plywood technique and are not found just anywhere, but you can find them at Hive.

Hive Modern has a huge choice of wonderful products from the top manufactures in modern design, heavy hitters like; Alessi, Artemide, Artifort, Fritz Hansen, Cassina, Flos, Kartell, Knoll & Vitra. They feature the coolest designs by creative designers like Patrick Norguet, Marcel Wanders, Karim Rashid, Ron Arad and Niels Bendtsen. There are really many more than I can name in one blog post but that gives you an idea of the scope of their selection.

Hive is the place to go to find those iconic pieces that you may not find from other retailers like the contemporary and highly functional Globus Desk designed by Michiel van der Kley for Artifort. When closed, the Globus Desktakes up very little space and looks like some sort of sci-fi movie prop but this innovative workstation opens into a very functional personal workspace complete with a rotating chair and a drop down work surface that is the perfect size for a notebook computer or just a fun place to sit and write a letter.

Best of all, I always visit Hive for the hippest and coolest new stuff that is causing buzz in the modern furniture world. When you like what you do, it shows and you can really tell that Hive loves modern and contemporary furniture, fun and funky lighting and the coolest and hippest home accessories. If you have live in the Portland area, make sure you visit their store at 820 NW Glisan Street or for the rest of us, go check out the Hive Modern Design Website.